Just lost another 50lbs of corn, plus enzymes, to boiling water destroying a Brute barrel

Post here whats not safe to do or use.

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raketemensch
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Just lost another 50lbs of corn, plus enzymes, to boiling water destroying a Brute barrel

Post by raketemensch »

I guess that this isn't a problem for some people, but this is the second time it's happened to me. I wrote off the first one as "maybe I hit the side with the stirring paddle on the drill," but this time all of that happened within a BIAB in the middle of the barrel, and now I have 20 gallons of water working its way, slowly, out onto my basement floor.

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Re: Just lost another 50lbs of corn, plus enzymes, to boiling water destroying a Brute barrel

Post by Salt Must Flow »

That is unfortunate. I use food grade poly drums for fermentations. If I'm not mistaken, they are significantly thicker than Brute trash cans.
Last edited by Salt Must Flow on Sat Jul 16, 2022 6:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Just lost another 50lbs of corn, plus enzymes, to boiling water destroying a Brute barrel

Post by raketemensch »

I have a steam kettle here that I still have not wired up, and it just hit me that I could use that instead of the barrel -- even if it's not connected to power it's still a 40-gallon stainless vessel.
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Re: Just lost another 50lbs of corn, plus enzymes, to boiling water destroying a Brute barrel

Post by Dancing4dan »

I’m sorry about your Brute, mess, and mash.

When you get to mashing, fermenting and distilling in the same vessel things kinda fall into place.

When you learn how to mash and ferment at 35*C, things are really going to open your eyes!

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Re: Just lost another 50lbs of corn, plus enzymes, to boiling water destroying a Brute barrel

Post by still_stirrin »

Well, some things are learned the hard way. But, you won’t soon forget it….while you’re cleaning up the mess. :shock:
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Re: Just lost another 50lbs of corn, plus enzymes, to boiling water destroying a Brute barrel

Post by rubberduck71 »

Is the heat allowing the sides to stretch to the point of breaking? If so, maybe double it up; i.e. one bucket inside the other. There's probably less than an inch of clearance between the "inner" & "outer" vessels, and will give you the extra strength/support you need.

I use 3x or 4x6 gal buckets to ferment & drop them into larger storage bins in case there's any airlock blow-off or lid push-off shenanigans. Reason being since I ferment in my dining room & SWIMBO would throw a fit if there was any spillage. They're smaller, rigid food grade, so that's why multiple, but I do see the appeal in those big boy Brutes.
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Re: Just lost another 50lbs of corn, plus enzymes, to boiling water destroying a Brute barrel

Post by NormandieStill »

Personally I wouldn't mash in in plastic, let alone attempt to gelatanise corn. And if I understand rightly the brute barrels are not even food grade.

High volume stainless containers are expensive but I would be trying to optimise a process around doing the high temp stuff in kegs and combining it into a food grade barrel for pitching. I get the impression that kegs are both cheaper and more available in the US than here in Europe.
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Re: Just lost another 50lbs of corn, plus enzymes, to boiling water destroying a Brute barrel

Post by higgins »

I use 30 gallon HDPE drums (the blue ones with red top) for mashing/fermenting.

I start by using my 15 gal SS kettle to cook the corn/water for 3 hours with HTL enzyme. I'll drop the temp to 150F with my immersion chiller before transferring it to the drum. I add the remaining grains, so my HDPE drum only sees a max of about 155F. After conversion I'll top off to about 20 gallons. If still too warm I'll use the chiller again to get it to pitching temp

I can cook up to about 30 lbs of grain in the 15 gal kettle, so I've settled on a mash that uses half the 50 lb bag of corn and do 2 mashes, 3 strips, and a spirit run to net roughly 2 gallons of product.
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Re: Just lost another 50lbs of corn, plus enzymes, to boiling water destroying a Brute barrel

Post by Deplorable »

That is unfortunate, but you aren't the first person to discover that using Butes to gel corn is a disaster waiting to happen.
I retired my brute to a storage only container to disguise my kit when broken down for storage after I noticed the air channels molded into the sides were getting weak and it was deforming.
While I'd love to have a 30-40 gallon SS vessel for mash-in, I just don't see it in the cards. Blue, or white HDPE 2 drums hold up just fine in my shed.
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Re: Just lost another 50lbs of corn, plus enzymes, to boiling water destroying a Brute barrel

Post by raketemensch »

Well, the BIAB turned out to be a lifesaver. I had installed a pulley in a beam above the barrel, so I was able to lift the wet-ass corn out of the Brute and swing it a foot to the right and drop it in the (non-functioning) steam kettle. Then I saved what liquid was left in the barrel and boiled up another 11 gallons of water and poured it in with another 2tsp of high-temp enzymes, so I think it’s gonna be OK.

That bag was heavy! I should set up a block and tackle or something.

I think I can salvage this thing. I just wish I’d wired up the kettle already, it’d be nice to just fire this thing up when the ferment is done. At this point it’s hard to tell how much water is in there, but it’s a 40-gallon kettle and it’s pretty full. I can definitely still for the 3 gallon ice cube that’s forming in a bucket in the chest freezer at the moment.
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Re: Just lost another 50lbs of corn, plus enzymes, to boiling water destroying a Brute barrel

Post by Oldvine Zin »

:cry: :cry: That sucks, I use my brutes for fruit ferments but for corn I have the 60 gal stainless tank

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Re: Just lost another 50lbs of corn, plus enzymes, to boiling water destroying a Brute barrel

Post by raketemensch »

Oldvine Zin wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 5:44 pm :cry: :cry: That sucks, I use my brutes for fruit ferments but for corn I have the 60 gal stainless tank

Stay safe
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60 gallon stainless! Good lord that's awesome.
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